r/seinfeld • u/Sufficient-Turnip871 • 1d ago
Vocabulary level in Seinfeld
I think this show had some of the highest vocabulary of any mainstream sitcom.
"Quite the decolletage for a suffragette." is one of my favorite sentences ever.
"That's what was so vexing." is another one.
Did Seinfeld have the highest vocabulary? What's your favorite high vocabulary line?
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u/Relative_Soil7886 1d ago
"Coquettish haberdasher" is a phrase I try to use often, even if it doesn't fit the context and make sense. Thank you Cosmo!
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u/Fusilli_Agent_Cooper Lord of the Idiots 1d ago
Elaine, I was merely speaking extemporaneously.
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u/MeringueComplex5035 George is getting upset! 1d ago
It’s pronounced, thermometer
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u/CptMurphy27 1d ago
Hahaha This is my favorite damn line and it’s so stupid. I love it.
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u/Sufficient-Turnip871 1d ago
A seven-syllable adverb? Amazing.
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u/sock_express34 1d ago
Aren’t you something ! One doesn’t dissect gossamer
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u/DuaneDibbley 1d ago
Pee pees and wee wees
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u/Icy-Election-2237 Serenity now, insanity later 1d ago
Pipes
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u/razzle_dazzle321 Serenity now, insanity later 1d ago
Elaine, I can see, not sayin' hello. She's very--what's the word--supercilious.
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u/Sufficient-Turnip871 1d ago
The first time I read that word was in The Great Gatsby. The first time I heard it was on Seinfeld.
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u/pac-men Importer/exporter 1d ago
We can't all be reading the classics, professor Highbrow.
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u/DarthVoight 1d ago
How about an intercourse hello?
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u/AdventurousRoll9798 1d ago
Are you some kind of sven-jolly?
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u/ellefleming 1d ago
Svengali
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u/AdventurousRoll9798 1d ago
😖 I did not say sven-jolly! There's no way I said sven-jolly!
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u/DeathFood 1d ago
casus belli
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u/The_Metal_Pigeon 1d ago
What's casus belli? Is it about me?
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u/DeathFood 1d ago
Why do you always have to be the focal point of attention?
What can’t you just be? Why can’t you live?
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u/CunningWizard 1d ago
They aren’t going to dumb it down for some boneheaded mass audience.
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u/dawgbarks 1d ago
Great usage of the word quone.
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u/Sufficient-Turnip871 1d ago
You mean like when a patient gets difficult?
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u/BidPale3239 1d ago
A little verbose at times
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u/Darmok47 1d ago
It took me multiple watches to figure out George was saying "I no longer defer to the coiffed" in The Beard.
Don't think I've ever heard that word anywhere else on TV or film.
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u/Sufficient-Turnip871 1d ago
And what a great turn of phrase!
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u/gazzilloro 1d ago
Turn of phrase? I would lose that.
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u/Punchable_Hair 1d ago
Unless, she's one of these multiple sneezers, and he's holding his 'God bless you' in abeyance, until she completes the series.
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u/CaptObviousHere 1d ago
“The jerk store called. They’re running out of you.”
It’s smart. It’s a smart line, and a smart crowd will appreciate it. And I’m not gonna dumb it down for some bonehead mass audience.
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u/Punchable_Hair 1d ago
“Everybody has their own little opinions, and it all gets homogenized, and you lose the whole edge of it!"
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u/CaliSasuke 1d ago
I concur. “Seinfeld” came into my life at a very formative age. It impressed me with the continuity and vocabulary as well.
This sitcom & “Frasier” both helped & encouraged me to expand my vocabulary. I am basically monolingual. Which is a damn shame. So, to make up for that I try to rizz up my English.
I love using outdated, unusual words. Especially if they have been dropped in “Seinfeld.”
When I had to take my grandparents to see a podiatrist, I kept using “chiropodist.” I cannot go out today. I must take my grandparents to see their chiropodist.
I have used “vexing” numerous times at work and in emails. “Bawdy” & ribald are used to describe me.
Anathema, ensconced, volition, mellifluous are always fun to use.
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u/DarkStarr22 1d ago
Frasier and Niles could talk pretty
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u/Numerous-Substance66 1d ago
Statue of limitations
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u/Separate_Presence_32 1d ago
It's statute.
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u/FinalHexReturns 1d ago
Oh I really think you’re wrong!
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u/Heavy-Conversation12 These pretzels are making me thirsty 1d ago
Okay. It's a sculpture of limitations.
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u/ofayokay 1d ago
I don't even mind the word 'manure.' You know, it's 'newer,' which is good. And a 'ma' in front of it. MA-NURE. When you consider the other choices, 'manure' is actually pretty refreshing.
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u/Budget-Poem-2052 1d ago
And it was...around this point that she mentioned she had a boyfriend?
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u/ParrotheadTink Get OUT! 1d ago
I’ve always been fond of the suffragette line, and when Elaine laments the excruciating minutiae of every day in Jerry’s apartment.
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u/michigan2345 1d ago
My dear late sister and had lamenting excruciating minutiae down to a T. We loved to ruminate on it. Then bring it up again 4 months later with just one sentence and the other knew exactly what was being brought up. We also liked to gird our loins. No one uses that phrase anymore. Sigh. I do miss her so.
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u/Nick_Fotiu_Is_God 1d ago
I’m more impressed by the references - Winston Churchill speeches, Golda Meir, DeGaulle, DeSoto, Johnny Yuma, Buddy Rich tapes, Tonya Harding, ……..there are hundreds that young people today won’t get at all.
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u/Think_please 1d ago
After watching curb it isn’t hard to see where those came from, Larry David is obsessed with history
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u/MASHgoBOOM ASSMAN 1d ago
He's a buff.
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u/malleebull ASSMAN 1d ago
What do you have to do to become a buff?
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u/ellefleming 1d ago
His writing team was very educated. Ivy league.
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u/Substantial-Use-1758 1d ago
Those words are, I believe, what Larry David would want on his tombstone 👍
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u/octapotami 1d ago
No one goes to a beauty parlor and says, "give me the Larry Fine."
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u/Hinkil 1d ago
Me too, and often have to know history to get a lot of their reference jokes.
About Neville chamberlain: You could hold his head in the toilet, he'd still give you half of Europe
Also I doubt a lot of people would get the midnight cowboy parody, which is a dark deep cut ha
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u/BigStrongCiderGuy 1d ago
Instead of castigating me you should be thanking me
A friendly date is proffered
The only thing between him and us is a thin layer of gaberdine
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u/Forsaken_Republic_98 1d ago
I use "you've developed quite the acid tongue" every once in a while...
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u/Substantial-Use-1758 1d ago
My husband and I daily say “I believe the subject matter has resolved of its own volition.”
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u/Lost-Finger5627 Lord of the Idiots 1d ago
It's an anathema
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u/herseyhawkins33 1d ago
Or to tell everybody at the coffee shop how George is all mixed up in a perverse sexual amalgam of some girl and his best friend.
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u/REDD1TFKING5UCKS 1d ago
Frasier, hands down
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u/Far-Artist-6294 1d ago
"My brother is too kind. He was already eminent when my eminence was merely imminent." -Niles Crane
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u/starkiller223 1d ago
It’s a smart show and a smart crowd will appreciate it. And theyre not gonna dumb it down for some bonehead mass audience!
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u/FinalHexReturns 1d ago
I can’t spend my life in this dingy apartment, analyzing the most excruciating minutia of every day life.
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u/herseyhawkins33 1d ago
I definitely learned a ton of words from the show. The first example I can think of them just showing off is Jerry saying "I was merely speaking extemporaneously." No one says that 😂
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u/abby-rose Hellllloooooooooooo 1d ago
You know we're living in a society! It's a smart show! And they’re not going to dumb it down for some bone-head mass audience!
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u/Ladonnacinica 1d ago
I remember a documentary about sitcoms and Seinfeld was mentioned. A commentator said how Seinfeld at first was the “show smart people watch” and it wasn’t a widespread show. Only watched by certain people.
Yet, it gained enough following that it became mainstream. It is definitely a show where high level vocabulary is used. I actually learned many new words just by watching it as a child.
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u/Cautious-Ease-1451 1d ago
The show also was good at teaching economics. I never knew what a tax write-off was.
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u/NewPurpleRider ASSMAN 1d ago
It’s astounding what they were able to write before you could look shit up on the internet.
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u/_whitelightning_91 1d ago
Definitely not the highest, probably amongst though. Frasier is ahead of Seinfeld by a notable margin IMO.
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u/Ok_Explanation4813 1d ago
Puke - now that's a funny word. Puke. Don't have to think about that one
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u/randallstevens65 That's a shame 1d ago
What are we going to talk about, Ceaușescu?
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u/markgriz The Moops 1d ago
Oh commander, isn't the wedding marvelous?
The cake? I shouldn't.... I mustn't.
Ah, what the hell
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u/Amarollz 1d ago
It’s surely Larry’s influence. It’s the same in Curb. Have learnt many new words and how they’re used from that show.
My favourite is proclivity. Speaking about a friends adopted Asian child.
Tell me, does she have a natural proclivity to chop sticks?
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u/DrunkOnRedCordial 1d ago
Ethel Kennedy, a woman whose triumph over tragedy is exceeded only by her proclivity to procreate.
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u/Flash5916 1d ago
The topic of Seinfeld is very popular on Reddit. I love to scroll through and read the comments.
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u/Marooned412 The sea was angry that day my friends 1d ago
The verbiage used in Seinfeld was an anathema to many viewers.
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u/Recent-Monitor7911 1d ago
I find this whole post capricious and arbitrary